Sponsors
Moderators
Chase Stuart is the managing partner of the New York office of Ice Miller LLP, where he represents private equity funds, independent sponsors and family offices. Mr. Stuart chairs the Independent Sponsor practice and provides strategic and legal advice in connection with a variety of corporate transactions, including leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, private investments, and secondary transactions.
Mr. Stuart began his legal career in the New York office of Skadden Arps in its Mergers and Acquisitions Group.
Specialties: Mergers & Acquisitions; Private Equity
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Anna Dayn is a Managing Partner and US head of New End, a family-office-anchored investment, strategic advisory and capital formation firm in private markets. At New End, Anna partners and invests in high-growth companies, sponsors and investment platforms to provide business development and access to institutional capital.
Anna has over 20 years' experience in funding, designing and implementing private equity investment programs. Before New End, Anna established the North American platform of XTP, Wilshire’s cost transparency analytics platform serving institutional investors. Anna previously served as the head of Private Equity at Cardano, a UK pension outsourced CIO firm, where she oversaw a private capital investment program spanning $2bn. Prior to that, Anna worked at Capital Dynamics and NM Rothschild.
Anna has served on the limited partner advisory boards of several private equity funds across North America and Europe. She a published author, media commentator, and a frequently featured speaker at investment industry conferences. She sits on the Executive Board of WAVE, the Women’s Association for Venture and Equity, and leads the New York Steering Committee for PEWIN, the Private Equity Women’s Investor Network.
Anna received an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA in Economics from the College of Arts and Sciences, both at the University of Pennsylvania.
Travis Loomis is a member of Withum’s Supply Chain Compliance Services Team. With over ten years of experience in supply chain and M&A consulting, Travis specializes in operations strategy, process design and improvement, supply chain optimization, merger integration management, and data analytics. His industry expertise spans Consumer Products, Manufacturing, Distribution and Logistics and Professional Services. He works with clients to build and sustain strategic competitive advantages and drive bottom-line benefits informed by candid communication and data-driven insights.
Panelists
Paul joined Greyrock in 2015 and is responsible for sourcing and executing transactions and well as portfolio management.
Prior to Greyrock, Paul spent three years at Prostar Capital, an energy-focused private equity firm. He began his career as a member of GE Capital’s Energy Finance division.
Yotam Avrahami is a venture capital and private equity investor with a proven track record in spearheading the identification, investment, and scale of high-potential startups and growth companies across emerging Aerospace, Mobility, Energy, and Critical National Security Technologies, such as Connected Insurance, Otto Aviation and various others.
His strategic leadership and subject-matter expertise drive transformative shifts and foster innovation within these dynamic sector.
Peter Hammond is an Operating Partner with The Courtney Group. He is a seasoned executive, specializing in manufacturing and distribution companies with $10-200M in revenue. He combines a dozen years leading world-class operations at Emerson Electric with fifteen years working with founders, PE firms and family offices to prepare manufacturing companies for sale. His work spans industries including medical device, aerospace, industrial automation, renewable energy, computers, powersports, exercise equipment, distribution, and warehousing. He is particularly effective in multi-cultural and international environments, having lived in Beijing for seven years and operated in forty countries.
30+ years in the Engineered Materials, Industrial Minerals and Aerospace/Industrial Gas Turbine sectors as a global business leader, industry consultant and private equity principal and operating partner. Experienced in strategy development and execution, manufacturing performance improvement, due diligence and acquisition target selection/integration. Worked extensively in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Prior to founding MSI, President of Minteq International, a leading provider to the global steel industry of engineered refractory materials, on-site furnace/ladle maintenance services, metal purification technologies and laser measurement and control systems. 1,000+ employees, 16 processing facilities including mining operations and 60+ steel mill services locations worldwide. Previously CEO and Director of Sermatech International Inc., a global engineered coatings applicator and specialty process business, a private equity portfolio company. Previous executive positions with Howmet Corporation, a portfolio company of the Carlyle Group, and Teleflex.
Ken Glassman has been the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of RWN Management since January 2010. Previously, he served as a Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of Credit Investing at Sandell Asset Management from 2006 to 2009. Before that, he was a Managing Director and Co-Head of the High Yield and Distressed Investment Group at Goldman Sachs, where he worked from 1998 to 2005. He began his career as a Financial Analyst in Equity Capital Markets at Salomon Brothers.
Ken graduated magna cum laude with Distinction in Economics from Yale University and earned an MBA from the Wharton School, where he was a Palmer Scholar.
He is a Director and former Board Chair of Arbor Rising and an Honorary Trustee and former Vice-Chair of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City.
Ken lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.
Founder, Simplicity Ventures
Simplicity Ventures helps growing companies succeed by making things simple. Bringing Fortune 500 expertise to mid-sized companies with a clear approach: identify what truly drives value, eliminate what does not, and protect what matters most.
Previously Vice President, Strategex
Ashley joined Strategex after nearly two decades working at Fortune 500 companies including Veritiv, Kimberly-Clark, and General Motors. As the Global Business Development Leader at Veritiv, Ashley led the international strategy development for a $200M+ business including target market and value proposition definition. This allowed the company to expand into new vertical markets with key industry leaders in each respective segment.
Beyond business development, Ashley has in-depth experience in engineering and innovation. Passionate about sustainability, she worked with a materials engineering team in Asia to help bring new, sustainable materials to market. Ashley also worked closely with global procurement leaders from Fortune 500 companies to develop resilient supply chains for direct and indirect materials.
Ashley holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University, and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Jennifer Stewart is Managing Partner of JSTAR Holdings (JSTAR), an investment firm focused on combining capital, talent and insights to buy and build great middle market companies.
Jennifer has a two decade track record in private equity investing and generated strong returns. She has been a board member to nine companies including public FGX International.
Her platform investments have emanated from diverse transaction situations, including public to private, entrepreneur/family-owned purchase, carve-out from public company, and sponsorship of a bankruptcy plan of reorganization. Previous portfolio revenue size has ranged up to $350 million in diverse industries including consumer, industrial, healthcare and financial.
Jennifer has also held operating leadership roles at two previous portfolio companies, providing her unique perspectives on the imperatives and challenges portfolio company CEOs face and further enabling her to be a symbiotic sounding board and partner at the board level to executive teams in the value creation journey.
Jennifer previously also was Managing Director at Berggruen Holdings and began her private equity career at Bear Stearns Merchant Banking (Irving Place Capital), where she also participated in the fundraising of BSMB’s first institutional private equity fund.
Jennifer earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS Chemical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude and with Honors, from The Pennsylvania State University.
Mr. Gouskos serves White Oak as Managing Director of Originations, responsible for originating and underwriting new investment opportunities for White Oak’s private debt funds. Mr. Gouskos has over 20 years of relevant experience in commercial and corporate finance, including the start-up of an ABL and Leveraged Cash Flow platform which was grown to over US$600MM in outstandings, the repositioning of a middle market ABL platform, successfully developing a direct origination capability and as a Managing Director of a nationwide turnaround and restructuring firm, where he managed a primary contract with the FDIC to sell and/or liquidate the assets of failed bank subsidiaries. His other experience includes managing and growing a large wholesale mortgage origination platform as a Divisional President and capital markets experience with BA Securities in their asset securitization group. Gouskos started his career with GE Capital and Heller Financial where he held a number of positions including portfolio management, underwriting and workouts. Mr. Gouskos holds a BBS in Accounting from Iowa State University with an emphasis in Finance and has also received his Series 7 and Series 63 certifications and is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt. Chris is an active member of the CFA, TMA and ACG and is a former Board Member of the CFA’s Southeast Chapter.
Doug Bunim is a Managing Director of OFS Capital Management and is responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing investment opportunities for the Middle Marketing Lending Business, as well as portfolio management. Mr. Bunim is also responsible for Fund Oversight of OFS's MM Lending Strategy, overseeing capital deployment, fundraising and fund leverage. Mr. Bunim has over 15 years of investment experience across the capital structure, in private equity and debt investing in the middle market and lower middle market.
Prior to joining OFS, Mr. Bunim held positions at Tamarix Capital Partners, an investment firm dedicated to providing flexible financing solutions to lower middle market companies. Prior to that, he held various positions at H.I.G. Capital in the middle market private equity group, and at Fenway Partners, a private equity firm focused on middle market buyouts. Doug received a B.S. in Finance and Accounting with a minor in Politics from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
Attendees
